The 2012 shortlist for the UK sports personality of the year was announced yesterday and without great surprise is dominated by Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Cyclists Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy, tennis star Andy Murray, and athletes Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah are candidates in a 12-strong list. Rower Katherine Grainger, golfer Rory McIlroy, boxer Nicola…

After finishing the last event of the year – Tour of Beijing – in 9th place – Portuguese Rui Costa from Movistar team ended up the season in an incredible 10th place of the UCI World Tour Ranking that envisages to consider a cyclist regularity along all the season. Rui Costa won in 2012 the Tour…

The UCI’s biological passport is an individual electronic document where the results of anti-doping tests carried out on a rider are registered on a regular basis. The biological passport contains information about direct test results (blood and urine), and both the rider’s hematological and steroid profiles (indirect tests). Before its existence, anti-doping detection was based only in direct…

The world cycling championships took place between September 16th and 23rd in Limburg, Netherlands. Following our last post on bikes evolution and races average speed increase, it was astonishing to see that the Elite Men’s race – that ended this event – was won by Philippe Gilbert with an amazing speed average of 43.541 Km/h for…

Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century. Historically, materials used in bicycles have followed a similar pattern as in aircraft, the goal being high strength and low weight. Since the late 1930s alloy steels have been used for frame and fork tubes in higher quality machines. In the 1980s aluminum alloy frames and other components became…